Local PC maker Asustek Computer Inc (華碩電腦) saw its ranking gain a notch as it became the world’s eighth-biggest laptop computer maker in the first quarter, helped by robust sales of new low-cost notebook computers, market researcher DisplaySearch said yesterday.
Asustek, which debuted its low-cost Eee PC series last October, expanded its market share to 4.3 percent in the first quarter by shipping 1.33 million units, trailing closely behind Apple Inc, which increased its share to 4.6 percent.
“The mini-note PC market is growing incredibly fast, but it is still in its infancy. Although the form factors are small and the features are limited, very aggressive price points for many of these devices are helping to drive growth,” said John Jacobs, director of Notebook Market Research at DisplaySearch, in the report.
Although these products have been on the market for many years, with models such as Fujitsu’s Lifebook U810 or the pricey 02 made by US company OQO, the market began to grow substantially when Asus introduced their Eee PC late last year, Jacobs said.
The researcher predicted that sales of mini-note PCs, or low-cost laptops, would grow to more than 13 million units this year, a forecast much more optimistic than the 3.5 million units forecast by International Data Corp, another market researcher.
DisplaySearch believes that mini-note PCs would eat into the standard notebook PC market, but would add to the market and perhaps even encourage up-sells to larger notebook PCs when users begin to require more powerful, full-featured machines, Jacobs said.
In the first quarter, shipments of global notebook computers increased 35 percent to 31.11 million units from last year, DisplaySearch said. Hewlett Packard Co retained the top notebook computer maker slot.
Among the rows of vibrators, rubber torsos and leather harnesses at a Chinese sex toys exhibition in Shanghai this weekend, the beginnings of an artificial intelligence (AI)-driven shift in the industry quietly pulsed. China manufactures about 70 percent of the world’s sex toys, most of it the “hardware” on display at the fair — whether that be technicolor tentacled dildos or hyper-realistic personalized silicone dolls. Yet smart toys have been rising in popularity for some time. Many major European and US brands already offer tech-enhanced products that can enable long-distance love, monitor well-being and even bring people one step closer to
Malaysia’s leader yesterday announced plans to build a massive semiconductor design park, aiming to boost the Southeast Asian nation’s role in the global chip industry. A prominent player in the semiconductor industry for decades, Malaysia accounts for an estimated 13 percent of global back-end manufacturing, according to German tech giant Bosch. Now it wants to go beyond production and emerge as a chip design powerhouse too, Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim said. “I am pleased to announce the largest IC (integrated circuit) Design Park in Southeast Asia, that will house world-class anchor tenants and collaborate with global companies such as Arm [Holdings PLC],”
Sales in the retail, and food and beverage sectors last month continued to rise, increasing 0.7 percent and 13.6 percent respectively from a year earlier, setting record highs for the month of March, the Ministry of Economic Affairs said yesterday. Sales in the wholesale sector also grew last month by 4.6 annually, mainly due to the business opportunities for emerging applications related to artificial intelligence (AI) and high-performance computing technologies, the ministry said in a report. The ministry forecast that retail, and food and beverage sales this month would retain their growth momentum as the former would benefit from Tomb Sweeping Day
Thousands of parents in Singapore are furious after a Cordlife Group Ltd (康盛人生集團), a major operator of cord blood banks in Asia, irreparably damaged their children’s samples through improper handling, with some now pursuing legal action. The ongoing case, one of the worst to hit the largely untested industry, has renewed concerns over companies marketing themselves to anxious parents with mostly unproven assurances. This has implications across the region, given Cordlife’s operations in Hong Kong, Macau, Indonesia, the Philippines and India. The parents paid for years to have their infants’ cord blood stored, with the understanding that the stem cells they contained